1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a design support apparatus for a CAD system design in which an environmental impact caused by a designed component selected by a CAD system is assessed, a device environmental impact assessment apparatus in which an environmental impact caused by a device designed by the CAD system and a recycle potential are assessed and computer-readable recording media recorded with a program for causing a computer to realize the above apparatuses.
Since environmental problems have become a subject of attention, our society has been changing from a society of mass consumption and mass refuse forward a recycling society for environmental preservation. Recently, makers have been required to design then develop environmentally friendly products and to improve the recycling rate of the products.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when the environmental impact of equipment design is assessed, it is conducted by designers based on their experiments and knowledge.
Since it is complicated and time consuming to assess the environmental impact based on designers"" experiments and knowledge, a program for assessing the environmental impact has been developed.
In the program, information such as each component, its weight and materials of the equipment are input interactively by a designer. Based on the input information, the environmental impact of the equipment is computed. Thus, the program can be used to assess the environmental impact of the equipment, instead of the assessment being conducting by designers based on their experiments and knowledge.
As mentioned above, in the conventional program, the environmental impact of the equipment can be assessed approximately.
Generally, equipment is designed by using a CAD system. However, the conventional program is independently provided and does not interact with the CAD system.
Consequently, in the conventional program, it is impossible to automatically obtain information necessary to reduce the environmental impact of the equipment and it is required for a user to manually input weight, material name of each component of the equipment and so on.
Moreover, the conventional program does not provide functions to evaluate the equipment with a numerical grade for recycle potential, to show which components of the equipment can be recycled and to provide information to improve the recycling rate of the equipment.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide a design support apparatus and a device environmental impact assessment apparatus for supporting a CAD system designing an environmentally friendly component or device and a computer-readable recording medium recorded with a program for enabling a computer to realize the above apparatuses in which the above-mentioned problems are eliminated.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a design support apparatus for a CAD system design in which an environmental impact caused by a designed component selected by a CAD system is assessed, a device environmental impact assessment apparatus in which an environmental impact caused by a device designed by the CAD system and a device recycle potential are assessed, and a computer-readable recording medium recorded with a program for causing a computer to realize the above apparatuses.
The above objects of the present invention are achieved by a computer-readable recording medium recorded with program code for causing a computer to support a CAD system in designing a device made of at least one component, the program including the code for: (a) specifying a material of the component indicated by a process request of the CAD system based on a plurality of design information in the CAD system; (b) retrieving an environmental impact rate of the material specified by the code (a) by accessing a database managing the environmental impact rate per unit weight of the each material; (c) calculating an environmental impact of the component based on the environmental impact rate retrieved by the code (b) and weight of the component indicated by the process request; (d) calculating the environmental impact of the device based on each component calculated by the code (c); and (e) selectively outputting the environmental impact of at least one component, which impact is calculated by the code (c), or the environmental impact the device, which impact is calculated by the code (d), so that the environmental impact of the component or the device indicated by the CAD system is assessed.
According to the present invention, it is possible for a user to know how much environmental impact the designed component or device will have. Therefore, the user can design an environmentally friendly component or device that will have less environmental impact.
The above objects of the present invention are achieved by a computer-readable recording medium recorded with program code for causing a computer to support a CAD system in designing a device made of at least one component, said program including the codefor: (a) obtaining a plurality of CAD design information of a device indicated by a process request of the CAD system; (b) specifying a material of the component indicated by the process request based on the CAD design information obtained by the code (a); (c) obtaining the recycle information of the material specified by the code (b) by accessing a database managing recycle information that indicates whether or not each material is recyclable and updating the recycle information when the recycle information is changed from recyclable to not recyclable; (d) calculating a recycle potential of the device indicated by the process request based on the recycle information provided by the code (c) and an amount of each component used for the device; and (e) outputting the recycle potential calculated by the code (d), so that the recycle potential of the device designed by the CAD system is assessed.
According to the present invention, it is possible for a user to know whether or not the designed device is recyclable. Therefore, the user can design an environmentally friendly device that is recyclable.
The above objects of the present invention are achieved by a design support apparatus for supporting a CAD system in designing a component, including: a specifying part specifying a material of the component indicated by a process request of the CAD system based on a plurality of design information of the CAD system; a retrieving part retrieving an environmental impact rate of the material specified by the specifying part by accessing a database managing the environmental impact rate per unit weight of the each material; a calculating part calculating an environmental impact of the component based on the environmental impact rate retrieved by the retrieving part and weight of the component indicated by the process request; and an outputting part outputting the environmental impact of the component, which impact is calculated by the calculating part, so that the environmental impact of the component indicated by the CAD system is assessed.
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide the design support apparatus in which a user can know how much environmental impact the designed component will have. Therefore, the design support apparatus can support the user using the CAD system to design an environmentally friendly component that will have less environmental impact.
The above objects of the present invention are achieved by a device assessment apparatus for supporting a CAD system in designing a device made of at least one component, including: an obtaining part obtaining a plurality of CAD design information of the device indicated by a process request of the CAD system; a specifying part specifying a material of the component indicated by a process request of the CAD system based on the design information of the CAD system; a retrieving part retrieving an environmental impact rate of the material specified by the specifying part by accessing a database managing the environmental impact rate per unit weight of the each material; a first calculating part calculating an environmental impact of the component based on the environmental impact rate retrieved by the retrieving part and weight of the component indicated by the process request; a second calculating part calculating the environmental impact of the device based on each component calculated by the first calculating part; and an outputting part outputting at least one of the environmental impact of the component, which impact is calculated by the first calculating part, and the environmental impact of the device, which impact is calculated by the second calculating part; so that the environmental impacts of the component and the device that are designed by the CAD system are assessed.
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide the device assessment apparatus which can assess the environmental impact of the designed component or device so that a user or a designer can know how much environmental impact the designed component or device will have. Therefore, the device assessment apparatus can support the user using the CAD system to design an environmentally friendly component that will have less environmental impact.
The above objects of the present invention are achieved by a device assessment apparatus for supporting a CAD system designing a device made of at least one component, including: an obtaining part obtaining a plurality of CAD design information of a device indicated by a process request of the CAD system; a specifying part specifying a material of the component indicated by a process request of the CAD system based on the design information of the CAD system; an obtaining part obtaining the recycle information of the material specified by the specifying part by accessing a database managing recycle information that indicates whether or not each material is recyclable and updating the recycle information when the recycle information is changed from recyclable to not recyclable; a calculating part calculating a recycle potential of the device indicated by the process request based on the recycle information provided by the obtaining part and an amount of each component used for the device; and an outputting part outputting the recycle potential calculated by the calculating part, so that the recycle potential of the device designed by the CAD system is assessed.
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide the device assessment apparatus which can assess the recycle impact of the designed component or device so that a user can know whether or not the designed device is recyclable. Therefore, the user can design an environmentally friendly device that is recyclable.